When a user purchases electronic equipment and starts using this electronic equipment, he or she refers to an instruction manual (an operation manual) bound in the form of a paper booklet and attached to the electronic equipment in order to check a method of operating the electronic equipment.
As an alternative, the instruction manual can be electronized into a PDF (Personal Document File) or the like in advance and can be included in the electronic equipment, so that the user can read the PDF as needed and can also check the operation method by displaying the PDF on a display monitor.
On the other hand, a technology for use in vehicle-mounted equipment, such as a navigation system, of downloading descriptions about a tire replacement method, a method of handling oil leakage, and so on to a recording medium which the vehicle-mounted equipment has, such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or a memory card, and then displaying them on a display monitor which the vehicle-mounted equipment has is known. In this case, the descriptions are contents for exclusive use including voices and moving images, which are different from the paper booklet (for example, refer to patent reference 1).
Furthermore, there has been provided electronic equipment equipped with an operation simulation mode in which the electronic equipment explains an operation method in such a way as to enable the user to perform an operation which the user intends while the user is allowed to perform each operation of the simulation (for example, refer to patent reference 2).    [Patent reference 1] JP, 2004-156995, A    [Patent reference 2] JP, 2006-11575, A
However, simply enabling the user to browse an existing instruction manual, like in the conventional example, cannot eliminate the difficulty of handling an application, such as a navigation application, while checking the instruction manual of the application. More specifically, unlike in the case of a PC (Personal Computer) having a relatively large display area, in the case of vehicle-mounted equipment, such as a navigation system, having only a small- or middle-sized display area, because a multi-window display of both an operation screen and an operation manual screen (referred to as operation guidance from here on) is not appropriate, the display resources are shared by them and the operation screen and the operation manual screen are shown with screen separation. For this reason, a complicated font, such as a kanji font, is hard to read, and it is actually impossible for the user to read the description about the operation manual and to simultaneously perform an operation shown in the actual operation screen.
In contrast, in the case of providing an explanation about a method of operating equipment other than navigation, the technology disclosed by patent reference 1 is effective because no display resource conflict occurs, whereas in the case of showing a method of operating navigation on a display monitor which this navigation system has, a display resource conflict occurs, as mentioned above.
Furthermore, according to the technology disclosed by patent reference 2, the user has to perform all the operations through the simulation. Therefore, the conventional technology is inefficient. More specifically, in a case in which a menu screen is developed in the following way: “generally-displayed screen (map display)→operation 1→large classification menu→operation 2→small classification menu→operation 3→operation screen for selection which the user intends.” The user has to perform the “operation 1”, the “operation 2”, and the “operation 3” until he or she reaches the operation screen (the operation screen for selection which the user intends) which is required in order to implement the user's intention, and therefore the number of operations (the number of clicks) that the user performs increases, the technology is user-unfriendly, and the load on the user is large.
The present invention is made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and, considering the fact that increase in the resolution of display monitors (for example, use of VGA: Video Graphics Array-ready display monitors), as well as improvements in display monitors and OSs (Operating Systems), has enabled sharp drawing of an image including a font, it is an object of the present invention to provide a navigation system which can avoid display resource conflicts by producing a reduced display of an operation screen and which can produce an improvement in the visibility of the operation screen, and an operation guidance display method for use in the navigation system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a navigation system which produces an improvement in the user-friendliness thereof by omitting manual operations (e.g., operation 1 and operation 2) which the user has to perform in order to reach a final operation screen for implementing the user's intention so as to reduce the load on the user, and an operation guidance display method for use in the navigation system.